All Forum Posts by: Krissy Mussenden

Is purchasing rental property part of your 2025 goals? Let us walk you through creating your plan!

Join us for our completely free Real Estate Investing 101 seminar, where you'll learn essential concepts such as deal selection, financing, and the underwriting process for buying multifamily investment properties. You'll gain insights from real estate professionals who are passionate about building wealth and actively growing their own rental property portfolios locally in the Greater South Bay of California.

We will cover:

• - How to develop an investment plan
• - How to calculate total return on an investment
• - Local market data and trends
• - How to find the right property for you
• - Key terms and formulas for multifamily deal analysis
• - And much more!

I'm a local investor and associate broker that focuses on helping others build rental portfolios for passive income. Whether your just getting started or you have a few rentals already, this is a great class for you. We'll share our strategy to help you scale and grow your rental portfolio for your own financial freedom.

@Jason Conroy

@Chie Z.

Hey guys, did you end up finding a house hack? I’d love to connect with like-minded investors like yourselves.

I bought mine last year and I’ve been loving it. South Bay is an expensive market so the house hack definitely helps. I upgraded my front house and live with a roommate and after my back unit is upgraded, I’ll only pay $500 a month to live there. And I’m only about 3 miles from the beach.

I’d love to hear how your house hack is going. I’m a real estate agent that focuses on multifamily and house hacking so I love hearing when investors are also doing it in the South Bay.

Many brokers I know rarely take on part time new agents. The reason why is that it takes a lot of time to train new agents and it takes a long time for an agent to be successful. If you’re only spending half the time in the job then it will take you even longer which is less gratifying and leads to many part time people going back to their other job.

If you have to start part time then you need to outshine other agents that will be full time. How do you do that? You show that are a self starter and can follow up until they respond. Treat the broker like a client and they will see you as an asset they need. And every broker needs an agent that will hustle. this is a sales job and unless you follow up with people then you won’t get any sales. Reach out to the broker via phone or email on a consistent basis a few times a week and they’ll definitely respond to you.

Hi Shoshanna,

Welcome to LA! I'm a fellow house hacker myself, looking for my first flip, and also a multifamily real estate agent. I really enjoy the FIBI (For Investors By Investors) and LA South REIA.

https://www.meetup.com/forinve... (FIBI) There are a few FIBI chapters in the LA Area. They usually meet once a month. The long beach chapter is talking about house hacking this month and I'll be a panelist. Feel free to join. It's virtual at the moment still. 

 https://www.lasouthreia.com/ They have a monthly meeting and also subgroup meeting that specialize in Rehabbing, notes, and multifamily investing. The speakers are very knowledgeable and very easy to chat with as well. I think they are going back to in person after this month. 

Hi Kevin,

The best question to ask anyone on your potential team member is: Do you invest in real estate yourself? If they are doing it themselves then they know what to look out for and how to handle situations that arise. Especially if you are on the newer side, then this question is huge. You can lean on their experience. Also I would ask them if they are open to walking you through the process. Some agents are happy to spend the time with people, while others try to sell you a deal and then walk away. Once you find a good agent or property manager, then I would ask them who they recommend as your other team members. David Greene says it best, "rock stars know rock stars" :)

My brokerage actually specializes in teaching people about investing in multifamily real estate and helping them grow their rental portfolios in the LA and South Bay areas. My broker went from owning a duplex 10 years ago to 120+ units now which I found really inspiring. After a year of working as an agent and teaching other about this, I was able to purchase my own duplex to house hack this year. I think knowing that my broker invests himself made everything he said way more credible and then he was able to connect me to a great team of property managers, contractors, etc. 

Hi Malia,

I used to work in the television industry so I know what the busy lifestyle is like. Investing in real estate for passive income is a great pairing for those that work in the entertainment industry. You're making a great choice to dive into it as well. I'm an investment property realtor in LA now, and I'm helping my friends working in tv and film production find there investment properties. They like the idea of a steady flow of passive income if they are in-between projects. Also the idea of a property manager really puts their minds at ease because of their busy schedules. The property manager handles collecting rent, filling vacancies, and managing any repairs. My friends just receive a report once a month to look at and that's it. The property manager makes it simple, they can even pay your taxes and mortgage for you too. 

Investing in most parts of LA is a bit too expensive to cash flow positive, but there are some areas where the numbers do make sense to invest here. Right now we're looking in Long Beach and there's plenty of great investment properties there. The area is really up and coming and they are putting 3.5 billion dollars into developing the city and it's already looking great. I have a client that just closed on a 4 unit only a mile away from the beach at $1.1M. There are duplexes in the area for $700-800K as well. Prices would be double that in Santa Monica. There are other areas like the valley and west adams that can have some great numbers as well.

Also house hacking doesn't need to be a one unit property with roommates. You can also house hack a multi-unit property. I just put in an offer for a duplex for myself to house hack in the south bay. I'll live in the 2bedroom unit and then have renters in the 3bedroom unit. And the units are two completely separate houses on the same lot so the renters are more like neighbors than roommates. I'm also using an FHA loan with only 3.5% down which is helpful to get started.

There's plenty of tips and strategies to for investing in big cities like LA, especially for those just getting started. 

Hi @Olivier H. 

Everyone in this forum has been giving you some great advice! I agree that house hacking a multi unit property with an FHA loan is the way to go for your first investment. As people mentioned, it does depend on your finances and how much you have saved up to put down. If you have a 25% down payment saved for an investment property and you are focused on cash flow then that is a good option as well. But if you are just starting to get your foot in the door to start your investing journey then the FHA loan, house hacking strategy is the best option. Even though you won't be cash flowing positive there are also other elements of return that you will have an advantage in, like appreciation and tax benefits and such.

Also another way to look at house hacking is by comparing your cost of living as well. In the Los Angeles area the rents for an FHA house hack won't completely cover the mortgage, expenses, taxes, etc. It's up to you to pay this difference, however that cost is usually lower than the current rent you're paying now. For example, I used to pay $1200 to rent out one room in a 2bedroom apartment. I found a duplex that I could use an FHA loan and then live in one 2bed unit with a roommate and rent out the other unit. After all the expenses, my monthly cost to live there would be only $800. That's saving $400 out of my pocket every month while at the same time gaining appreciation and equity in my property over the years. Kind of awesome!

I know Los Angeles is an expensive barrier to entry, but there are deals like this out there. You might not be able to house hack well in Santa Monica, but there are definitely places nearby that has these types of deals. Feel free to reach out if you want some help looking into the area.

@Calvin Rankin @Monica Salera Do you mind sharing the email or contact that you received the DVD from? The courthouse keeps directing me to city hall instead and I still haven't been able to reach the right person to help. Any help you give would be much appreciated. 

@Bob Floss II and @Brent Coombs thank you for the info. That definitely filled in the missing pieces! 

Thanks for the great info everyone. I'm still a bit confused about the cashing out part. Essentially the new 75% ARV loan from the bank will replace the hard money loan that had a shorter term and higher interest rates. But how do you actually pay off the HML after you refinance? Does the bank give you the cash for the HML, or do you have to pay the HML out of your pocket and then pay yourself back slowly through cashflow?